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That 60 page rant, it is still epic.

When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, 'Who is destroying the world?' You are.

[jaypee]

That 60 page rant, it is still epic.

When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, 'Who is destroying the world?' You are.

please, go create a John Galt thread, I'm not interested in re-living this horrific book.

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Why do you hate money?

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"objectivists" aren't exactly known for things like decorum or politeness.

No kidding?

[jaypee]

"objectivists" aren't exactly known for things like decorum or politeness.

No kidding?

yes, thank you for proving my point.

as a matter of fact, you should read further down within that post to where I mention the "Aspergers-like inability of "objectivists" to recognize the disgust on the faces of anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in a conversation with them"

or something to that effect.

[Black_Magic]

Because the anti-objectivists in this thread have displayed the epitome of decorum and politeness XD

The irony is beautiful!

[seaotter]

Wow bm must be in deep to comment on manners.

[stiggywigget]

Man I forgot all about how crazy that shit is.  Considering the recent worldwide financial disaster, it almost seems prophetic, in retrospect.

Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, 'Account overdrawn.'

Prophetic? Yes, who could have predicated that a financial crisis was going to occur sometime in the 50+ years since she wrote those lines?

Anyway, now that we have someone advocating for a return to the gold standard I declare this thread a success.

[whitedevilbrewing]

You all did well while I was away.

[gcason]

I'd prefer "Ayn Rand: The Worst Author Ever"

Why don't I quit fucking around and really take the gloves off?

AYN RAND: INSANE NAZI CUNT!!!

Because she's not a nazi.

Turn up the gain on your joke detector, dude.

Reading through the thread, I can see how the mistake was made.

[Benx6444]

"Overall, the experience eerily replicates that of devouring a family-size bag of Cheetos in a single sitting.^1"

^{You know, if you are going to try and slam a writer, you really are required to be able to at least write.}

lol, exactly, what was GQ thinking by publishing this?

Ahhh!  At last, the Randroids emerge!

Don't be shy, dudes.  Let 'er rip!  Tell us how great Her Holiness was.

Well, towards the end of her life she was clearly insane. Even during the 60's and 70's she was starting to lose it. I remember reading Nathaniel Branden's book about his life with Ayn Rand and realizing what a fucking psycho she was. Steve was right on about her and her organization being a cult. From all accounts the organization was a madhouse.

That being said, the Ayn Rand that wrote Atlas Shrugged, testified at HUAC, escaped Stalinist Russia and started a new life, stood up to leftist d-bags who actively supported the "revolution" in the USSR and commented on what conditions were actually like in Russia at a time when rabid pro-communist fuck sticks in America and elsewhere were actually talking like characters in one of her books? That Ayn Rand? I freakin' LOVE that Ayn Rand.

So I'm torn. I realize, like Steve said, that she ended up going out as a cultist douche bag herself. She ended up hurting a lot of people as she progressed into whatever madness it was that consumed her towards the end of her life. And yet I love the young Ayn Rand who acted like a hero from one of her Novels.

I guess, like so many of things, you have to fish the good stuff out of the flotsam of her creative career. She wasn't a saint that's for damn sure.

[Benx6444]

I am an objectivist that appreciates art.

What does that make me?

An apostate.

She appreciated art, she just thought there was an objective criteria for doing so.  As long as you can justify why you appreciate a piece of art with objective criteria, you're ok.

Apart from all the libertarian ideology, this idea about art is completely silly. Why should art be appreciated with objective criteria, and did she ever try to formalize this pseudo-rational theory of art appreciation? (I heard that she hated Beethoven and loved Rachmaninoff, but I never heard about her "objective criteria" to justify this judgment.)

She never provides any objective criteria for her tastes, Sir. Basically, she blithely assumes that if you are one of the supermen you'll just "know." It's absurd. It's one of the reasons I hate "The Fountainhead." It's chalk full of this kind of arrogant, culty attitude over art and architecture etc.

[Benx6444]

I can't read minds.

I can actually explain this one.

"If you really loved me, you would be able to read my mind, and know what I want, with out me having to tell you."

You sound suspiciously like a woman.

[Benx6444]

Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another--their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.

Atlas Shrugged

thanks for post whoring, but I didn't need some overwhelmingly self-interested author to tell me that money and capitalism is the only viable system. That's not really what we're talking about here, what we're talking about is how obnoxious the cult followers of one very very mediocre novelist are.

I kinda agree with everything you say up until "very very mediocre novelist." She was a badass writer. Seriously. You may not like her political ideology, her insane artisitic tastes etc but you gotta read "Atlas Shrugged" it is the bomb.

[Benx6444]

That 60 page rant, it is still epic.

When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, 'Who is destroying the world?' You are.

please, go create a John Galt thread, I'm not interested in re-living this horrific book.

*snicker*

Alright now you're being silly. Horrific? Really?